Contents

Background and education

Grey was the only son of Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet, of Fallodon, second son of Charles Grey, 1st Earl
Grey, and younger brother of Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl
Grey. His mother was Mary Whitbread, daughter of Samuel
Whitbread. Grey was educated privately and at Oriel
College, Oxford. Originally intending to become a priest, he
instead chose law as his profession, and was called to the bar in
1826. He began a successful legal practice, but soon turned to
politics.

The Whigs returned to power in 1846 under Lord John Russell, who
appointed Grey Home Secretary, the first of his three
spells in this position. In 1846, Grey, "himself a zealous advocate
of hydropathy"[1]
succeeded in getting passed The Baths and Washhouses Act, which
promoted the voluntary establishment of public baths and washhouses
in England and Wales. A series of statutes followed, which became
known collectively as "The Baths and Wash-houses Acts 1846 to
1896".[2][a] This was an important
milestone in the improvement of sanitary conditions and public
health in those times.[1]

Political career,
1853-1874

Grey remained out of parliament until January 1853, when he was
returned for Morpeth. He at
first refused to join the coalition government of Lord
Aberdeen, but in June 1854 he accepted the post of Colonial Secretary.
The coalition fell in February 1855, and the Whigs returned to
office under Lord
Palmerston. Grey was appointed to his old office of Home Secretary,
which he retained until the government resigned in February 1858.
The Conservative administration
under the Earl of Derby
which took office only lasted until June the following year, when
Palmerston again became Prime Minister. Grey was now appointed Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, but in 1861 he became Home Secretary for
the third time. The government fell in 1866, and Grey was not to
hold office again. Before the 1874 general
election, he was overlooked as the Liberal
candidate for Morpeth in favour of miners' leader Thomas Burt. This
marked the end of Grey's public life and he spent the remainder of
his life in retirement at his Fallodon estate in
Northumberland.

Family

Grey married Anna Sophia Ryder, eldest daughter of Henry Ryder,
Bishop
of Lichfield. They had one son, George Henry Grey (1835-1874).
Grey died in September 1882, aged 83. As his only son had
predeceased him, he was therefore succeeded in the baronetcy by his
grandson, Edward. He
was also to become a prominent Liberal politician, and served as
Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, when he was raised to the
peerage as Viscount Grey
of Fallodon.